Karla's Cottage

The Plaza Lights- from a very special viewing point

Our pal, Angie lives in an apartment overlooking the KC Plaza with a glorious view of the holiday lights.

The view inside is pretty dang great too. Angie arranged a delectable feast of loveliness for us after a day out together, lunching, shopping, and laughing. 

The city looked magical from her window.

It was a day filled with pretty things.  

And fun photo ops.

With some silliness thrown in.

I wore my favorite, new Santa shirt (AGAIN, it seems to be my uniform for December along with my decade old, red velvet coat), and found a set of placemats to match it.  But since they cost more than the shirt did, I didn't buy them.  Actually, besides lunch, and a bag of old fashioned, hard candies, I didn't do much purchasing. Just browsing and enjoying the over the top, holiday displays the stores had out.

We went to the Kaufman center to see the trees and flowers, which are a major mood enhancer this time of year.  When the Kansas landscapes are grey, brown, dreary, and dead, it is heartening to see flowers in bloom. I bent over and got some deep whiffs from the pots of white stock and the sweetness of the blooming plants really made me happy inside.

I'm rarely a red or green person, and don't decorate my home in these colors for the season, but I do love pops of these festive shades in jewelry or clothing in December.  So, I made myself some silver earrings with red and green semi-precious gemstones. While I was at it, I made enough to pass out to friends too, and took some to lunch that day for Beth, Karla, and Angie to choose from.

In the past, I've painted ornaments as little gifties for friends, and it was nice to see that Angie has some of them on her sparkling tree.

Her home is perfectly coordinated, and she has such a gentle touch with decorating, it is always an honor to see something I'd made in her home.

She crafted gift bags filled with everything we'd need for a winter's night of relaxation at home. (Wine, chocolate, and a good book!) and topped the package with this sweet collaged image. 

It was a special day, ending with an even more special evening. I'm blessed to  have good friends who could take a day off to simply enjoy the season with me. 

 

 

Elfing around with pinecone pixies

My pal, Tami, once again invited a group of local Peeps to her lovely home for a holiday crafting day. She is always generous with supplies and ideas to share with friends.  This time, we were elfing around and making pinecone pixies.

Here are a few of the ones that I made. She provided a basket full of pine cones, and plenty of felt, along with the little wooden balls for heads and other tidbits to put together.

I'd brought this chunk of firewood, deer, and tree to make this display.  

But this character looks more like a Yorkie than Santa's helper, doesn't he?

See what I mean?

Or maybe more like this?

We had a holly jolly time making these, and soon the room was filled with the fun lil guys.

It was hard to stop, even though all of mine didn't turn out as good as I would've liked. This poor sprite looks like she has smoker's wrinkles around her mouth where the ink ran. I can almost hear her throaty voice saying, Ho HO, Ho, between coughs....

Her sis turned out a little better. She is sitting on a spool.

Tami's halls were decked, her home is always so tastefully and vintagely festive.  I do not know why I didn't get more pictures, dang it.  But at least I took this pic, look at this unique and fashionable tree.

Between eating a yummy, pitch in lunch and assembling elves, we also worked on a few other projects.  There were some butter pat plates available to work with.

I'm afraid my finished product is rather plain, but the plate itself was so simply sweet, I wanted to keep it pretty much as is.

 

I also made a little doggie ornie.

And a bottle brush tree snowflake too.

With all of the laughter, warm conversations, and of course- treat snacking, I don't know how I managed to get so many things made.  

What a nice day! Thanks, Tami!!

On the way to the wedding, a wonderful side trip!

When we went to The Other Karla's son's wedding, Beth and I made a stop in Des Moines to visit some of our Birdsong Peeps and have a crafting sleepover at a rustic, charming, and cozy, Airbnb barn.  Our Peep, Nora, generously made up kits of felted wool for us to create these fab trees.

Beth and I sorta crashed their party, they'd made plans to go up to the flea market and stay at this charmer, and we asked to be included.  They graciously let us stay with them. This was our room.

It had a uniquely curved, metal ceiling.

Okay, I'm going to have to use "charming" again, because that is what the whole place was.

We missed the dinner they shared, but were there for the tasty, overnight oatmeal breakfast.

Our dinner was at an Iowan diner where we had the local special, loosemeats.

After a night of laughing and crafting, we headed out for the Junk Jubilee.

And it was so festive!!! I loved the holiday decor everywhere.  I thought this would be an ideal spot to get a selfie to show the room and the cute display at the entrance, but as you can see, our heads block most of it.  

I think I could use a selfie lesson.

Overall, I sincerely think this is one of the best fleas I've been to, pricewise. It was also set up with gorgeous displays, the dealers made major efforts to have enticing booths.

Plus we ran into Peeps everywhere! (don't ask me why I don't have photos of them, pure carelessness, I guess- too busy hugging and being happy to see old friends to remember my camera!)

Thank you Tami, Gail, and Nora for your hospitality, and thanks Beth, for hauling me along on your trip. It was a raucous roadtrip.  At our age, we don't get enough of those.

Christmas tag books in the Boutique and a sweet wedding, at the BEST weekend

I'm still enjoying the bounty of paint pours from my creative binge this summer and am now using the pieces to make holiday tag books.

You can purchase them HERE, in the Boutique.

I seriously adore the technique and the look of the swirled paints.  Acrylic flow painting is the BEST!

I'd gone with Beth to attend the wedding of The Other Karla's son in St Paul and brought crafty goods (including these painted tags) with me to play with in the hotel room, then found a bounty of beauties at a flea market on the way there. 

Once I got started on making these, I couldn't stop. I was a bad friend and sent Beth out on her own to have lunch with her Minnesota nieces while I stayed in my jammies and made book after book after book that day, till it was time to get ready for the wedding.

Because- WOW- look at this paper I'd found!!!!!  How could I leave it uncut, when I had all of these pretty, painted tags to make things with????

I'd also bought 1928-29 women's magazines from December with lots of helpful Christmas tips, along with an old book of hymms that included Christmas carols.

And stacks of holiday ephemera.

And did I mention that it was 13 degrees outside? And I'd driven through mini blizzards to get there.  Yes, I was content to do hotel crafting in my jim jams and had a beautiful, wonderful, magical day.

It was the BEST.

Not only did I have a fab night with friends, then a day at a flea market on the way to the wedding, I had an entire day with the most magical of vintage supplies, topped off with a night of dancing and laughing til my sides hurt at the wedding.

Or did my sides hurt because I was way to old to dance that hard and that long?

Either way, it was a perfect weekend.  Laughter, road trips, making things, attending a lovely wedding.  Yep, the BEST.

I had never met Karla's son, but soon realized he was a catch.  His wife won my heart quickly too, when she told us about the family tradition of using this vintage cake topper.

Karla made ribbon wands that were waved in the air when the couple entered the reception, and soon we were all dancing and waving them around out on the floor.  Not only were they pretty to see flying about, but they had magical properties.

When we twirled them about, we were FANTASTIC  dancers. We were the BEST.

And personally, I can't dance and have less rhythm than, well, I can't actually think of anything or anyone with less skill on the dance floor than I have.

Between the laughing and the ribbon wands, my dancing skills suddenly became amazing.  Everyone's did. 

Yep, it was the BEST.

 

 

Karen's (Daisy) Book

Back in August, Karen gathered a group of us together for a getaway and shopping, then the group came to my house to try their hands at pour painting. This book cover is Karen's creation from the day.

My painting friends were visiting from Florida, and the paint takes 3 weeks to cure completely, since it is so heavily applied and has conditioners in it.  So, I kept the pieces here to dry, and mailed them later. 

But before I did, I put this book together for her, and another for Guncle Randy. Both were empty covers that they'd painted.

And since I LOOOOOOVE making books, I couldn't help giving her a head start on her pages.

About half are blank, and I added some vintage wallpaper, lace and embellishments to the rest.  Now, she has some backgrounds ready to add her own art, or poetry to.

My Special K, as I call her, loves Gatsby.  And identifies with Daisy.  So, I made sure there were plenty of daisies in the book for her.

She has a lovely poodle, Queen Satine, so when I saw these rhinestone poodles, I knew they had to be a part of the book too.

It is a joy to use these papers, I hope Karen loves working with them too.

Her cover turned out so sweetly, I wanted to honor it with an equally sweet interior.

Thank you for hosting our group for the flea market getaway and for coming to play with paint with me, Karen!!

And if any of you want to make a book with the two of us, I'll be teaching a class at her studio in Deland, Florida in February.  Details to come...

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Crown Crafting with the Crew

Besides junking, sipping wine, sitting by a bonfire, playing with piglets, and eating too much like I was a piglet myself (thanks for the great food, Tracy!!), we did some crafting on Labor Day weekend when i was with my buddies at the hunting cabin.

Royal Style!

Tami brought enough supplies to top off the entire British monarchy.

And we loved every bit and bauble she brought.

Here is a Gatsby-esque one that she gifted to Karen.

And here is a heart shaped, nature inspired, Fairy Crown that I made for Sugarwings.

She placed it on our lamp when she took it off, I kind of like it there.

This is the woodland example that Tami brought.

Angie is modelling the Ice Queen crown.

I made one similar to it.

I'm also creating a Raven crown, from a beaded flapper dress I found at a flea market. It is still in progress, I'm thinking it will require some black feathers and maybe even a feathery bird. I'll be wearing it with my raven dress to a fairyland ball that my sis, Terry, is throwing next summer. It is never too early to plan ahead, is it? This will be a big occasion, so Guncle Randy and I both worked on our headpieces.

Here is the beginning of the base of his. He ringed it with more stones, and we aged it with two colors of Rub-n-buff when we got home. 

He will also add vines and sprigs to fairy it up.

They all looked great together.

Thanks for the beautiful project, Tami!  

(I only wish we'd thought of posing some of these onto the mounted deer and turkeys around the house!)

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Grouting Day

My pal, Shanna, has a group of friends most Thursdays for mosaic projects. I usually bring something else to work on, since I'm not a glass artist, but this time, I did take her up on an offer to dip into the piles of cut glass she had for me to use.

I thought that a mosaic frame would look nice on this beach painting.

Shanna also helps with grouting, and there were a couple of other projects that needed finished that day.  This is Margie's table to donate to a fundraiser.

And a mirror that she did. I called it Boho Gothic.

Thanks, Shan!

Good friends, good lodgings, and goofiness

Foofy, gorgeous, girly, Karen, is also an avid hunter and outdoors woman.  She turkey hunts at Rawhide Camp Outfitters   

It is in a beautiful setting, on a bluff overlooking a bend in the Missouri River.

And it just so happens to be a hop, skip, and a mini jump, down the road from my favorite flea, at Sparks, KS.

Since flea market season and hunting season do not coincide,  she stays at the camp in August to go shopping, and is kind to invite some friends along for the trip. This is my second year there with her and I hope, not the last.

Some Birdsong friends, local and from far away, gathered to enjoy the hospitality of the home. We were all spoiled by Tracy's cooking, did some crafting, some shopping, lots of laughing, and maybe drank a bit of wine...

Angie gifted us with a vintage craft pack, and Beth made up a Flea Market Survival Kit, with wet wipes, mints, and tissues.

The home is owned by a super nice family, some of whom came by to visit.

The rooms are filled with trophies, and has a distinct hunting theme.  

There are "sheds" everywhere.  I was going to say hundreds, but I'll bet it is more like thousands.  

This guy was our crating, buddy and watched over the table we worked at.

You can tell by the surroundings that the place is probably more used to Turkey and Deer Hunters than Vintage Junk Hunters. 

I thought it was pretty clever, to use one of their empties for a soap dispenser.  And to top off the popcorn with a light bulb when there was no lid for the jar.

And yes, there were plenty of empties.... NO, these were NOT ours. Like I said, we were daintily sipping wine.

And honestly, not that much wine.... goofiness sometimes just occurs when the opportunity arises.

And then it escalates a little bit.

Well, maybe more than a little.

See?

This is the room that Guncle Randy and I shared.  I am lucky enough to have been a guest in the Crown Royal Suite two years in a row. I felt like a princess.

The views were dreamy.

I had a feeling that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

It was the best!! Thank you Karen, and thank you to the Whetstines for hosting this fun filled getaway!!

And you thought I was done celebrating? Ha!

My husband is becoming overwhelmed by the length of my birthday celebrations.  His birthday has come and gone, while I am still living mine up.

Seriously, I thought I was done too, then my Birdsong pal, Tami, included me in her own birthday party.  She, Nora, and I are all turning 60 this year and at her recent craft day gathering, she toasted the three of us, plus others' special days too.

Not only that, she created these lovely crowns for our trio of 60 year olds.  (Mine is too far back on my head to show in this, but you can see it in the close up, above.  Gorgeousness, huh????)

Tami supplied projects for the day too.  There was an assortment of lids to turn into note holders, and clip boards to foof up. 

As it always is, her craft day was filled with laughter and creativity.  Thanks, Tami!!

When your friends know you well

Back in May, I threw myself a birthday dinner party and invited some of my long time, good friends.   We'd met through our love of art, and even though our art endeavors have gone different directions over the last 20 years or so, we still have a love of each other.

They collaborated on a charm bracelet for my 60th, with pieces charmingly filled with memories of our times together and of my favorite things.

There is sea glass (one of my obsessions), a heart signifying family, diacrylic glass from a group project we did, birthstones for my kids, and see the bakery stand? I love to serve cupcakes on a tiered stand, not just on a plate.

A vine for my garden, a bird for Birdsong, a mermaid for my love of the ocean, and even charms for my doggies.

My friends found  yorkie, doodle, and golden retriever charms for the bracelet.  And a Disney castle!!

It was a thoughtful gift from friends who know me well and who I am lucky to have.

Thank you, guys!!

I'll leave you with a few photos of the table before the group arrived.